Compelled (22 page)

Worry snuck up on me and my fists clenched. There had been so many phrases. It wasn’t just a simple, “Come on out, guys.”

I faced away from Luda.

“I’ll be fine,” I whispered. The apple remained in my hands. My appetite had left me.

The town disappeared and pine trees began to take over the landscape. The sky overhead was overcast, threatening to rain as we ventured deeper into the forest. Soon enough, we reached a parking lot full of camping vehicles. Since it was so late in the night, no one stirred about.

“This is the place,” Tyler declared. “Are you excited?”

“Of course. But I wonder why we haven’t seen any warlocks or wizards yet.”

Tyler sighed. “I wondered about that, too. Could they be farther north? Maybe closer to the island?”

“Maybe,” I said. “They’re probably under a mask of some kind. Dr. Frank said they should be swarming all over the place around here. We need to be careful.”

“Then I’ll go out first and look around. I’ll be back soon to get you three.”

Tyler left the car. Luda took my hand as I looked around out the window. “Don’t worry so much, Nat. You always take the burden of the world on your shoulders.”

“Worrying has kept me alive so far.”

“It might have, but that doesn’t mean you have to let it constantly eat away at you.”

I wished I could’ve explained to Luda what it meant to have an anxiety disorder, how I couldn’t turn it off even if I wanted to. My medication, which I hadn’t taken since I’d left home, only did so much. I’d never be normal, and, in a way, I’d come to accept that. It was making others accept it that was far more difficult.

Tyler returned soon. “The coast looks clear for now. I did see a warlock, but he was alone and he drove away.”

“A warlock drove away?” Zoya glanced in the direction he pointed. “Why not just disappear like they always do?”

“I dunno. I guess he wanted to get some
beers
or something.” Tyler opened my door so I could get out. “Next time he shows up, I’ll ask him why he’s driving a human’s car.”

Zoya rolled her eyes and got out. She took a long sniff in the air. “Seems clear so far.”

We slowly walked past the cars into the forest. The pine and spruce trees hugged us, their scent pouring through me and satisfying the wolf. Whatever Oksana had given me, I needed it.

“How is your stomach?” Tyler asked me. “Is it still?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t looked since we left and I don’t want to see if it’s gotten worse.” The army weighed hard on me. My shirt had a slight protrusion that brushed against my jacket. While I got out of the car, I felt it shift inside me. My leg was much better. Thanks to Oksana, my body had healed most of the minor fractures, but I still winced when I tried to put weight on the leg. I ignored the pain as Luda lent a hand.

“Just use me as a crutch, Nat.”

After less than a mile of walking along a trail, we decided to jump off it and go deeper into the forest.

“How far should we go?” Luda asked. We’d taken a spot at the rear. “Nat shouldn’t walk too much on her leg.”

I couldn’t help smiling at her. She was so sweet and kind. I wish I had a sister like her back at home.

“How’s this, Nat?” Tyler yelled back at me.

We hadn’t gone too far, but it would have to make do. Most of the night had been eaten away. The darkness settled into me and I was wary. I reached down and touched the ground. Not that I wanted to teleport, but I was curious about something. There was a pull to the left, to the north, indicating a great deal of magic at work there. It pulled at everything here and disjointed the space. Hopefully, it wouldn’t bring the warlocks here and interfere with my spellcasting. The
 
thought hadn’t occurred to me before that such magic would draw the darklings and the warlocks, but this time, I wasn’t so foolish.

Nick was able to do something he called masking. Where his magic could be hidden from others. I didn’t know how he did it, though. My guess was that he thought or, I should say, he believed that others wouldn’t see what he didn’t want them to see. Nick was a pro at that. He’d hidden his feelings from me for years.

I sighed, thinking of my friend and hoping he was well.

“Are you ready, Nat?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, as much as I’ll ever be.” I handed Tyler my backpack, and, with Luda’s help, I headed toward a circle of trees. Judging their distance to be wide enough to accommodate the party, I headed to the edge and sat down like Blazh did near the field.

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine him sitting beside me. His burly bulk would be in a heap as he tried to sit cross-legged and wasn’t able. His wavy, amber-colored hair would be reflected in the moonlight and he smiled at me. “You can do this, Nat.”

Sadness touched me. I couldn’t find the words. Blazh was dead and all I had left was his memory. Our friendship had been too brief.

With a sigh, I tried to chant the words. But I knew they were wrong. It didn’t feel as smooth or as well as Blazh did it.

A palm touched my forehead. Someone leaned in to whisper in my ear. “You’re doing great, Nat. Slow down.”

Luda’s hands touched my shoulders and rubbed them with encouragement.

I opened my mouth, but the words didn’t come out. I had to remember or I’d be trapped with these people until they killed me. I had to remember or those wizards would die.

I had to remember or the love of my life would die, too.

No pressure, right?

I closed my eyes and tried to remember the last couple of days. Beyond the trip here from
Troyebortnoye
beyond the fight in the forest with the darkling. All the way back to when Blazh told me he was letting go of the old magic spellcasters. It was that moment, that physical memory that I remembered the most. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he told me he was sacrificing himself for me.

My heart clenched in my chest. I fought hard to remember that moment. Remember that span of time. Seeing the old magic spellcasters as they approached me. Farther back until they had first appeared. From there, I was sitting on the ground with Blazh and he was opening his mouth to speak first. I was hesitant, but the way he spoke was so deep, so sure of himself, he’d practiced for years and whenever he spoke the first syllable of “
Ndinae
,” it was spoken with pride.

With that first word, I had it. I lowered my tone and imitated Blazh. I tapped my knees like he did, settling into a rhythm, letting the words flow with me as I recited them.

A tug in my midsection expanded until it felt like someone was twisting my insides. I hunched over a bit, but I kept chanting.

“Nat?” It was Tyler.

“Don’t interrupt her,” Zoya snapped.

With each repetition of the spell, I took deep breaths and kept going. Oksana had prepared me for this. I could do it. I believed I could do it, so I kept at it. At my side, I sensed someone else was tapping. Tyler and Zoya clapped not far from me. With my eyes closed, I couldn’t see much, but from behind my eyelids, I noticed something begin to glow. A light shone in the darkness of the night. I couldn’t break my concentration, so I kept my eyes shut and focused. I was almost there. I could almost feel the strands connecting me to the group inside me pulling away, like a mother giving birth to a child.

The clapping and the tapping near me seemed to fade, as if they were backing away from me.

A feeling of euphoria drenched me, a haze of happiness only comparable to the night I first saw Thorn after he’d returned to town.

Then the glow behind my eyes faded and I dropped like a hard sack of dog kibbles onto the ground.

Ouch.

I expected to blackout, maybe even faint a bit, but I was face down in the pine-needle-covered dirt, breathing in and out, as a pine needle jabbed me in the nose.

“Nat! Are you okay?” Luda’s strong arms pulled me up.

“She’s weakened by the spell,” Zoya said.
 

Zoya and Tyler leaned over me with concern.

Beyond them, my vision swam, but I caught the most beautiful sight. Twelve people, dressed in medieval garb, standing in the circle of trees. The range of emotions on their faces went from horror to pure anger.

Then twelve turned to eleven as one of them vanished in a flash of light.

Chapter 22

Chaos broke out in the small clearing. Eleven people in front of Tyler, Zoya, Luda, and me ran around like clucking hens. A few of them pulled out swords and pointed them at us. One of them shouted obscenities at their friends, and the only woman among the group screamed in anger.

“Silence!” The tallest man among them roared. Even the birds were silenced.

He had the widest dark purple eyes I’d ever seen, a strange purple that glowed like two setting suns. As he turned to look at everyone, his thick wavy brown hair partially masked his face. “All of you brats need to calm yourself or, by God’s blood, I will cut all of you to pieces.”

Zoya clutched Tyler, who had somehow pulled out his battle axe, while Luda remained frozen behind all of us.

“First things first.” He glanced at each of them as if to do a headcount. “Where is Elric?” He stormed toward the group and searched through them. “Where is that Satan’s whoreson?” he spat.

The others looked around them, too.

“What are they saying?” Tyler asked. Zoya translated into his ear what they were talking about.

“He’s gone,” the woman murmured.

“I don’t see him either, Royse,” another man said.

The tall man stormed across the clearing and roared at us. “Are you the magician who set us free?”

“I think so.” Saying anything else seemed kinda dumb.

“Why did you keep us there?” he asked with a hard edge as he pointed to my stomach with a sword.

“I barely saved you,” I mumbled. The weakness in my limbs clung to me. I couldn’t even stand.

Behind him, the woman the man called Royse looked up at the night sky. She walked a bit forward and her mouth opened wide. “Oh, no. It’s been so long, Vasili.”

“What are you saying?”

“It’s not cold anymore. And the stars have moved. At least four moon cycles. What happened to Kyjev?”

My heart dropped for them—even if they did point their weapons at us. “It’s been longer than that. It’s been over seven centuries,” I said.

“Centuries?” For a werewolf, she was a strange sight. She had Russian features, yet a smattering of Asian ones. Her eyes were light blue, almost white. But her most striking feature was her thick black hair that had been piled on top of her head in a haphazard fashion.

“Many, many moon cycles.” I did the math for her. “Thirteen moon cycles equals one year. Seven hundred seventy-four years is over ten thousand moon cycles.”

One of the men sank to his knees. His narrow gray eyes honed in on me. He rubbed his hand from his nose to his prominent cheekbones with sadness. “Then we have lost much more than Ulricslav. What of Kyjev?”

Tyler and the twins remained silent. So I choose to speak. Hopefully, they understood enough of my words. “Batu-Khan took Kiev in 1240. He massacred nearly everyone and continued east to kill more people.”

Vasili swore again.

I think they got it.

“But you have a chance to help again. The wizards who needed your help before need it again. The warlocks have made war with them. A much bigger fight than the fights they had before. They have surrounded wizards north of here because those men have found a way to turn the tide for the war.”

Vasili glanced at Royse, and she turned away.

“Seven hundred seventy-four years and the world looks just like we left it,” one of the men said.

“Shut up, Tomislav,” Royse said, not appreciating his sardonic humor.

“We shouldn’t stay here or help those wizards,” Vasili snapped. “We need to find Elric and avenge our families for his treachery.”

“What did Elric do? Was he the man who disappeared after I set you free?” I asked.

Vasili harrumphed. He glanced at Tomislav, the quiet one who appeared to be the lowest ranking member. “Track him now. Find his trail and come back when you have his position.”

Tomislav nodded. He scanned the ground and then sprinted east. As to how he caught a trail by scent or sight, I was curious.

“Who is Elric?” I asked again.

Vasili ignored me. He went from person to person, whispering to them to ask of their health and wellbeing. I’d guess shocked would be the perfect answer for all of them.

It was Royse who finally answered me. “We were on our way to Kyjev through the snow. While we were camping, one of the men overhead Elric speaking to a rock. He was telling the rock that he would fulfill his obligations to the warlocks and poison us to prevent us from reaching Kyjev.”

My eyebrow rose. A rock, huh?

“His treachery ran deep and our suspicions were confirmed when he prepared dinner that night. He made us a strange stew, but no one ate it.” She took a step closer to me. Up close, I could make out her cream-colored skin and her graceful build. “When our leader Ulricslav confronted him about it, he tried to attack us with a death spell.” Her eyes glazed over a bit and I sensed her anguish. “If it wasn’t for Ulricslav, we all would’ve died. He sacrificed himself, throwing his son out of the way, and trapped us in that horrible place. A place where apparently there is no time.”

“So the man who disappeared was working for the warlocks?” I asked.

She nodded.

Tomislav appeared in the middle of the field like a whisper. One minute he wasn’t there and the next he was. These werewolves were amazing. Did they possess the same powers as wizards?

“Elric went north,” he gasped, appearing a bit out of breath as if he ran. “I followed him until I spotted warlock troops hiding among the trees. There are hundreds of them along the lake shoreline toward an island.”

“Stolobny Island,” I whispered. Elric had gone straight to the enemy.

“Is this the place you speak of where the wizards are trapped?” Vasili asked me.

“Yes, they’ve trapped the wizards there for the past week. They need your help.”

“So you set us free just to help them?” His right eyebrow rose to mock me.